To My Amazing Sister...

Ok, I couldn't leave this one alone.  This one goes out to my sister that keeps me sane!  She is there in good times and bad.  Through thick and thin.  Through rough times and smooth.  She takes my kids at the drop of a hat.  She laughs with me, and better yet she cries with me.  She is a truly AMAZING person who doesn't fully know exactly how amazing she really is!

One problem, when we get together, the air seems a bit thinner and we don't get enough oxygen to keep us from laughing so hard that sometimes our pants don't stay dry (you more "mature" ladies will understand this phenomenon).   

Finished project...YAY!!

A couple of weeks ago, my sister and I built a shelving unit in her front room closet.  We called it "Girls With Tools" day.  It was a job that would have taken our hubbies maybe 1 1/2 hours to do, but we had it completed in a whopping 4 hours flat!!!  We even used power tools!  I haven't had that much fun in a REALLY long time!

We have been kickin' around the idea of starting a YouTube channel called "2 Sisters".  It would be a way for us to not only share with other women how incredibly awesome they are even if they have life challenges, it would also be a channel that shows you can have fun even when you are doing the mundane things in daily life, like exercising or baking bread.  (Exercising burns more calories if you are laughing while trying to lift weights and count repetitions while trying SO hard NOT to stare at your sister who is TRYING to do the proper form but failing miserably! I guess you just have to see it to understand it!).

So, my sister, thanks for making my life more livable.  I love you to pieces!

Ok Week, Bring It On, I'm Ready!

This week is gonna be rough, but I can make it through.  Somehow.  I think.

I actually made a family friend belly laugh over my current situation.  See if you have the same reaction after reading my situation.

It all starts today, my baby turns 4 years.  I bought her the cutest outfit to wear for her birthday.  It is pink and sparkly even!  Yeah, she took one look at it, said "oh", wore it for a total of 5 minutes, then promptly changed into something else.  Boy, I am NEVER shopping for clothes for her by myself again!  (I do have to admit this is a trait that she has inherited from me.  No one can buy me anything cuz I am very particular about what I wear.)

Next in line is a family BBQ on Sunday to celebrate the 2 high schoolers in the family that are graduating.  My brother's son and my daughter.  Luckily I don't have to do anything more than clean my house for this event, but that in and of itself is a royal chore.  After all, my family has cleanaphobia!

I THINK I will get a one or two day break where I can rewind and prepare for the next event.  THURSDAY!

On Thursday, my son graduates from Kindergarten, my daughter graduates from High School, AND it is my son's birthday (he will be 6).  I am looking forward to this day with equal amounts of excitement and dread.  Excitement cuz they both are at a very exciting time  in their lives and have reached amazing goals.  Dread cuz of all I have to do to prepare for the celebration events that day!

In the next 7 days I will be making 3 different cakes, hosting 3 different parties and wrapping several gifts.  It feels like Christmas in June!

I do feel special though.  Not many other mammas can say their 1st child and their 2nd child graduated on the same day (unless your 1st & 2nd are twins!).  One is graduating from High School while the other is graduating from Kindergarten.

Ok, week, bring it on!  I'm ready!

(10 minutes later.... I just found out that my downstairs shower is leaking and the bathroom is starting to flood!  Maybe I'm not as ready as I thought!)

Scale of Motherhood

I was talking to a friend the other day about how we need to do our very best at all times.  As long as we do our very best we will never have any feelings of failing.I have often told my children that I will accept any grade or score that they get in school as long as they can truthfully say they did their VERY best.  This accomplishes a few things, first of all they have to learn to be honest with themselves, cuz if you aren't honest with yourself, you can't be honest with anyone.  Then they have to be honest with me.  That means they have to take responsibility for their own actions and not blame the score/grade on the "unfairness of the teacher" as so many of the other students are quick to claim.  There are a few things that I WILL NOT accept and that is an F or a 0 on an assignment, because this shows that they most certainly DID NOT do their very best.

If you put this into perspective as a mother, ask yourself :

"How do I measure up as a mother?" 

I try to reach for the "Mother Teresa" scale of motherhood but I sometimes feel that I fall in the "Marge Simpson" category.  (Now I don't watch the Simpson's, but I have heard stories, and I tell you what, Marge is NOT one to look up to!)

I find that if I do fall short of being an ideal mamma that particular day I just have to ask forgiveness from Heavenly Father and try harder the next day.  A great day is constituted when I only yell 6-8 times, the kids are dressed, have eaten good meals and not just cold cereal for three meals that day, the dog is not dead, and the water is not running down the street in the gutters.

I have often told my family that when I die I DO NOT want to hear the words "I never heard my mamma yell, not ever!"  You KNOW that when you hear these words spoken at a funeral the person speaking is LIEING!!  If that mamma was any sort of mamma at all SHE YELLED at least once, after all, her kids were not only 2 years old, but they also went through the teen years!

I want my family to say that I was a great mamma who taught them to love and serve others.  That I was stern, but they always knew I loved them.  That I taught them the value of work, even if it meant pulling weeds or scrubbing floors for hours on end.  That I taught them the importance of taking responsibility for their own choices and that facing the consequences are difficult at times.

No, I'm not a "Mother Teresa" mamma, but I do try my very best at it.  I may not have the most perfect children in the world, but they are happy and they know that I love them to pieces.  I know that as long as I don't give up on doing my very best, I will make it through this experience we call life and that my children will grow up to be well adjusted adults that can contribute to society in a positive way.

I just hope that if I fall short of the "perfect mother" mark that I can make it into heaven with an incredible apple pie used as bribery!

What is "Happy Mail"?

  The past week was CRAZY, not to mention a little bit difficult.  BUT, on a side note, like the minion stated, I didn't need bail money and I didn't have to hide any bodies!

It started with Monday.  Ok, that doesn't need too much more explanation.

Then Wednesday happened.  I visited a neighbor that had recently lost a son to a terrible situation.  I don't know who did more comforting, me or her.  You know the situation, you go to console the person and give them comfort during their time of loss, but you are so far gone that they end up patting you on the back and saying "everything is OK" while you are slobbering and dripping snot all down their back.  Ok, it wasn't THAT bad, but it felt like it.

After that, I went to grab my kids from my every amazing sister that steps in whenever I need an extra hand (see, moms DO have four hands, sometimes they are attached to another person!)  We soon discovered that my son had "lost" their dog (for complete story click here  Lost Dog ).

The week just got better and better too.  

I have started to avoid the mailbox.  It seems to me that the mailman only delivers doctor bills anymore.  That is such a terrible feeling "hey honey, what came in the mail today?"  "Just a few more doctor bills."  

I have gotten to the point of opening the bills and shoving them into the drawer.  On payday I take them all out, close my eyes and run my hands over the bills to see which one is gonna get paid that week.  Whichever bill my hand "lands" on is the lucky winner!

Why can't I just get "happy mail" for a change?  You know what "happy mail" is don't you?  It is the mail that lets you know your uncle's, daughter's, niece's, great-granddog is having babies....  OK, so that is a little extreme, but you get the picture.  

"Happy mail" is just that, mail that brings a smile to your face, not mail that makes you wish you would have crushed the mailbox instead of opening it.  Mail that makes you want to give your mailman a bear-hug instead of kicking him in the shins.

I love opening my mailbox and finding a card that says "hey, how you doing?" or a little note that says "hope your day is great!" or an announcement stating that my long-lost cousin is finally getting married after 40 years.

I often ask my hubby to run the bills to the postoffice.  He says "you want me to mail your letters for you?"  I say "no, I want you to mail the BILLS for me."  Then we get into a huge discussion on the differences of what qualifies as a letter or a bill.

A LETTER is something that you love to receive.  It delivers a certain amount of information that is pertinent to the individual receiving said letter.  You can find out who is marring who, who died, who bought a new house, who is graduating, who is having babies, or what someone wants for Christmas.

A BILL is just that.  A piece of paper that tells you how much you owe the electric, gas, or power company.  It can also tell you that you are dying because you now have over $2000 in doctor bills you got to pay!

The type of mail you receive in your mailbox can make or break your day.  And if your day is a little brighter because someone took the time to send you "happy mail" just think of how much brighter you can make someone's day by sending them "happy mail".

Go ahead, make someone's day a bit brighter today!